


The many colors of a bruise

by Kaesteranya



Category: The many colors of a bruise
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-04
Updated: 2011-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-18 23:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/194325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesteranya/pseuds/Kaesteranya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The weight of responsibility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The many colors of a bruise

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime in the future – the future of the TYL Arc, anyway. The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 8, 2008.

Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family, woke up when they were a couple of miles too far away from home. It took him a moment to realize that he was not walking on his own two feet, that someone was carrying him away from the ruins and bodies of his enemies.

 

“Ah—”

 

“Don’t move so much, Tenth. You might hurt yourself.”

 

Gokudera Hayato paused to adjust his hold on Tsuna before he continued walking through the forest. The silver-haired mafioso seemed perfectly content with putting one foot in front of the other, keeping his eyes on the path in front of him and his grip underneath his boss’ legs firm, as though the latter weighed nothing at all to him. From where he was, Tsuna could make out only half of Gokudera’s profile, in the cut up light of the moon filtered through the canopy of the trees around them.

 

“Um. I think I can walk, Gokudera-kun. Really, I’m fine…”

 

He trailed off because Gokudera kept his silence and kept on walking, as though he had not talked at all. Tsuna tightened his grip around his right hand man’s neck and almost regretted saying anything at all. He did not expect Gokudera, of all people, to ignore him, but given the way things had been as of late, perhaps he should not have been too surprised. They were, after all, fleeing from a building full of people that Tsuna had ripped apart, with his own two hands.

 

“You’re… you’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” Silence again. Tsuna steeled himself and pressed on. “Because if you got injured, Gokudera-kun, then I don’t think you should be carrying me—”

 

“Please be quiet, Tenth, and let me do my job.”

 

Gokudera had spoken to him in a soft, dangerously quiet tone that Tsuna had never heard the other man use before. There was power in it, the sort that drove Gokudera to do all of the things he did as Tsuna’s Right Hand Man, be it destroy things or obliterate people with a unshakeable resolve and a few sticks of dynamite. Tsuna resisted the urge to answer him, and shifted a bit, trying not to lean on Gokudera as much as possible.

 

The rest of the trip went by in a strange blur; Tsuna remembered blinking in and out, finding himself still in the forest and still slumped against Gokudera in one moment and then being carted off in Ryohei’s arms in the next, with the frantic voices of his subordinates all around him. By the time the world decided to stop spinning, Tsuna found himself back in his own bed, patched up properly and staring up at the ceiling. The first thing he noticed the moment he turned his gaze back down to Earth was Gokudera slumped over his bedside with his head pillowed in his arms, fast asleep. He was still wearing the now torn, bloody and dirtied clothes that he had worn for their mission.

 

“He wanted to apologize to you.”

 

Yamamoto was curled up in a seat pulled up to the other side of the bed; the swordsman set the book he had been reading aside and smiled at Tsuna, reaching out to pat his boss’ hand. The Shigure Kintoki was propped up against his seat, with its hilt easily within reach.

 

“Apologize… for what?”

 

“He said something about losing his cool. I can’t imagine him ever getting angry at you though,” his Rain Guardian remarked, as he stood up. “Anyway, I’ll go and call a doctor in here. There are people stationed outside, so shout if you need anything and I’m not back yet, okay?”

 

Tsuna only smiled at Yamamoto in response; he dropped it, however, the moment his old friend was gone. The young mafia boss turned back to Gokudera’s sleeping form, recalling the details of the mission, thinking back to all the fights and trials that had brought them to the mess they were in at the moment, with him flat on his back and Gokudera quite possibly blaming himself for letting his leader go off and get hurt again.

 

 _But if I don’t bleed, I’m never going to learn._

 

Gokudera shifted underneath Tsuna’s fingertips, eyebrows knitting, lips mouthing his boss’ name. Tsuna stroked his hair, both to comfort the sleeping young man beneath his touch and himself.

 

 _He’s always going to be there to catch me._

 

It was not an entirely comforting thought; it carried with it a responsibility that Tsuna had attempted to run away from throughout his years in middle school, one regarding families and fighting together and dying for each other. He was older now, though, and he had not gone through the past nine years without learning how to protect himself better, to make sure that Gokudera would never have any reason to feel like he had failed somehow.

 

Gokudera had relaxed underneath Tsuna’s fingertips, and thinking about the issues were starting to take their toll on him; the young boss shut his eyes, ready to give himself over to his exhaustion now that they were in a safe, well-lighted place. He recalled, just before he drifted off again, the chill of the forest and Gokudera’s back – warm and wide and solid – against his bruised cheek.


End file.
